Senior executive explains why it's the manager's responsibility to ensure fair pay for employees

Inequality when it comes to wages is a common phenomenon that any job market struggles with. There is a constant debate on whose responsibility it is to ensure that all workers are paid fairly. We can't decide if it is the CEOs, union workers or colleagues that need to take steps to improve the wage gap that exists for individuals coming from different backgrounds. However, a senior executive named Farhan Randhawa has made it absolutely clear that it is the managers in any company that need to step up when it comes to ensuring fair pay.

Randhawa wrote in a viral LinkedIn post: "I found out that one of my employees was underpaid. I kept hearing, 'The employee agreed to the salary upon hiring.' This didn't sit right with me.'"

He added that often people don't understand their value and therefore hesitate to negotiate "during the hiring process." They should not be compensated "poorly" due to this reason. Randhawa decided to take matters into his own hands and "pulled the employee's job profile (which was outdated) and performance reviews."

Then, he "gathered salary insights and went to work on the employee's behalf." Randhawa believed that the "salary adjustment" for this employee was a no-brainer but nobody agreed with him. "So, over the next several weeks, I fought for the employee and managed to get the necessary approvals for the compensation re-evaluation," he added.

Randhawa's efforts bore fruit when the particular employee got " a 34% salary increase, an additional 5% in bonus eligibility, and 5 extra days of vacation time." He concluded the post by writing, "The employee never asked for any of this, but as a manager, your job is to be the voice of your people — even when they don't ask you to be."

His post resonated with many employees and managers and gathered almost 50k reactions on LinkedIn. Moreover, it was reshared on several other social media platforms like Reddit, where it received over 44k upvotes and thousands of comments from users sharing their own stories.

Reddit user u/The_Passive_Fist, shared, "I took over a manager role about 3 years ago and the first thing I did was review the team's salary and set to work making it right. Then last year I took over as manager for 3 other teams and did the same thing. I battled for additional budget, and got it." They added that due to their efforts, the team is "consistently outperforming other departments and exceeding goals." 

u/judyvi commented: "Many people in supervisory and management positions have no leadership skills. They weren’t promoted because of these skills and have no idea how to actually do their jobs. These posts are important as a teaching tool." A third Reddit user, u/Cessily, wrote, "This is exactly what managers are supposed to be. Your job is to manage the resources, the employees, in your care. You get them what they need, you remove barriers for them, and get them performing the best they can be." 

u/Kanguin, commented, "Had this happen at my current employer 4 years ago. My manager got me a 22% raise, then 8 months later another 29% raise. I'm very fortunate and I wish everyone else could work under a supportive supervisor/manager."